Nested stories are stories within a story. In such a narrative, it can have any number of stories, sub-stories, and secondary stories, and any of these can further have its own plots and sub-plots. Nested stories have been present among us for centuries and can be easily seen in books, movies, TV series, plays, and so on. However, the method of nested loops is used in therapies and persuasive techniques as well.

If we see the common structure of it, sub-stories are often related to a higher-level or main story, but not necessarily directly. Sub-stories can be completely different also, or they might add detail about the back story, providing depth and reason for the main storyline, for example through the use of flashbacks or sometimes flashforwards.

So what is unique about such narratives? It has usually been seen that people become more and more involved in such stories. Using nested stories is effective in drawing the audience in, engaging them in listening, and blocking obstructions from the outside, as they tend to focus more and more on keeping all pieces together and connected. And this ultimately builds up their curiosity. It is really important to complete all stories and give them a reasonable amount of time for setting up, as if all stories have different characters, they might need separate time for buildup or they might be introduced in previous or next stories.